Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L

Verizon Wireless' stable of 4G devices is getting crowded, and that's a good thing given the LTE network's superior speeds. In the mobile hotspot category the Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L ($99 with two-year contract) joins the Samsung SCH-LC11 (also $99) as the second option available on Verizon. This business card-sized Wi-Fi router can share its connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other Wi-Fi-enabled gear. So is this your best bet?

Design

The MiFi 4510L is nearly identical to the MiFi 4082 for Sprint. Made by Novatel, they both have the same curvy, chrome edges and glossy black surface. It contrasts with the more modern, minimalist aesthetic of Verizon's other 4G LTE hotspot, the Samsung SCH-LC11. At 3.2 ounces and 3.7 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches, the MiFi 4510L is both longer and heavier than the SCH-LC11, but just barely; the Samsung SCH-LC11 is 3 ounces and 3.5 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches.

The 4510L's top face has a mirror-like surface, but its bottom and sides are covered in a grippy soft-touch material. Along with logos for Verizon, MiFi, and Verizon's 4G LTE network, the top face of the 4510L also has a circular chrome power button and a handy vertical E Ink display that shows battery life, connection strength, and the number of connected devices. Because the Samsung LC11 has no display, users must check the same stats in the router's control panel, so the 4510L has a big edge here.

The back lip of the 4510L has a connector for an external antenna and a microUSB port for charging via a notebook's USB slot or the included adapter. On the front is a multicolor LED light to indicate connection type (3G or 4G) and battery charging status. A Verizon SIM card slot hides beneath the battery. Unlike Sprint's MiFi 4082, there's no microSD card slot for storing and sharing files.

We should mention here that although the Sprint MiFi 4082 includes a GPS radio, Verizon chose to deactivate the GPS chip inside the 4510L.

Setup and Control Panel

You'll be up and running on the 4510L in no time. Hold down the power button, wait about 15 seconds for the wireless radios to activate, watch for the LED light to flash either purple for 3G connectivity or green for a 4G signal, and connect your device by entering the pre-set password. Our first attempt took about a minute to complete. Once our test notebook recognized the 4510L as a trusted Wi-Fi source, connections took 20 to 30 seconds.

Unfortunately, you can't charge the 4510L over a USB connection to a notebook and broadcast a Wi-Fi signal at the same time like you can with the Samsung SCH-LC11 and the Sprint MiFi 4082 (which even supports sharing an Internet connection directly over USB, which offers faster speeds). When connected to a PC, the device shuts down the wireless radios and charges the 4510L's battery. In order to use the 4510L while charging, you'll need to plug in the AC adapter.

Like with most routers, you can access the 4510L's settings via its URL. There you can change the password, see other connected devices, set the hotspot to power down if it idles, and adjust the security settings. The control panel also shows you the device's battery life, connection strength, and type of data network access available (3G or 4G).



Typically, mobile hotspots built by Novatel (such as the Sprint MiFi 4082) include the manufacturer's proprietary MiFi OS, a mini operating system that users can access in the router's control panel to take advantage of location-based services such as local business search and weather updates. However, the MiFi 4510L doesn't include this software because the GPS chip inside the device comes deactivated.

Speed Results (Speedtest.net)

The MiFi 4510L's 4G LTE performance was fast. When we connected it via Wi-Fi to a Toshiba Tecra R840, the average download speed was 16.6 Mbps, but we noticed download connections as fast as 20.1 Mbps using the Speedtest.net service in our Brooklyn apartment. The slowest speed we encountered was 10.82 Mbps. However, when we tested the Samsung LG SCH-LC11 hotspot in the same location a few weeks ago, it notched an even faster speed of 19.4 Mbps. The Sprint MiFi 4082 pulled in average download speeds of 3 Mbps when we tested it previously in Brooklyn, which is much slower.

Verizon's LTE network offers blazing uploads as well. Testing in the same location, we noticed an average upload rate of 5.7 Mbps with the MiFi 4510L. That's 0.5 Mbps faster than the Samsung SCH-LC11's upload average of 5.2 Mbps. The MiFi 4082 for Sprint averaged uploads of just 0.97 Mbps.

 

File Download Tests and Web Page Load Tests

To test the 4510L's real-world download and upload speeds, we performed three tests: downloading a 151MB OpenOffice install file from a FTP server to a notebook, uploading a 6.5MB file to the same FTP server, and averaging the load times of three websites.

The 4510L downloaded the 151MB install file in 2 minutes and 12 seconds, a transfer rate of about 9.2 Mbps, which is faster than the Samsung 4G hotspot LTE device. The SCH-LC11 moved the same file at a slower 5.3 Mbps (3:49) during earlier testing. In Brooklyn, the Sprint MiFi 4082 suffered from a strained connection speed and the file saved in a painfully long 21 minutes and 52 seconds (a very sluggish 0.92 Mbps). The MiFi 4082 pulled down a faster download rate of 3 minutes and 10 seconds (a speedy 6.4 Mbps) in our midtown Manhattan office.

The 4510L uploaded a 6.5MB file in 10 seconds, a transfer rate of 5.2 Mbps. The Samsung LC11 accomplished the task in a slightly faster 9 seconds (5.8 Mbps). The Sprint MiFi 4082, capped by WiMAX's 1-Mbps upload ceiling, transferred the file in 55 seconds (0.95 Mbps).

On our web browsing tests, the MiFi 4510L loaded The New York Times website, CNN.com, and ESPN.com in a quick average of 5, 4, and 4 seconds respectively. That's a hair faster than the Samsung LC11, which pulled down each of the same pages in an average of 5 seconds. The Sprint MiFi 4082 loaded the same pages in longer average times--9, 8, and 7 seconds, respectively.

Performance with Multiple Devices

The MiFi 4510L can share LTE with as many as five devices. We connected three notebooks (a Toshiba Portege R700, Tecra R840, and a Lenovo ThinkPad X220) and a smartphone (Sprint HTC Evo 4G) to the MiFi 4510L. The hotspot's performance was impressive. With Hulu video playing on the X220, a Green Lantern trailer running in YouTube on the Portege, and Pandora streaming on the Tecra, the HTC Evo 4G downloaded the 2.73MB Abduction! World Attack game in 9 seconds and notched a download rate of 6.2 Mbps in the Speedtest.net app. With streaming services running on all four products, the Portege R700 pulled down 18.2 Mbps on Speedtest.net. What's more, we didn't notice a single buffer delay in tunes streamed over Pandora or any of the video services.

Reliability

Speaking of strong connections, the MiFi 4510L's link with our notebook over Wi-Fi remained steady throughout our testing. The Samsung LC11, on the other hand, was a different story. On several occasions our laptop's connection to that device disappeared suddenly, requiring us to restart the device. At one point, we couldn't connect to the 4G network at all, even though our high-speed connection was solid just minutes before. We encountered problems like this several times while testing in Chicago and New York.

Battery Life

When connected to a Toshiba Tecra R840 notebook, the MiFi 4510L lasted 3 hours and 9 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test, which tests web surfing over Wi-Fi. The Samsung SCH-LC11 lasted nearly 20 minutes longer, 3:27. That delta isn't very significant, but it's worth noting that the Sprint MiFi 4082 clocked in at 4:11, just over an hour longer than Verizon's version of the same device.

Coverage and Value

Verizon's LTE network is available in 40 cities and 64 airports right now with 105 more markets planned for the end of the year. For a full list, click here . Sprint's 4G WiMax network is available in 71 markets.
The MiFi 4510L costs $99 with a $50 online discount and a two-year contract. Verizon offers two 4G mobile broadband plans: a monthly allowance of 5GB for $50 a month or a 10GB option at $80 a month. Over the course of a two year plan, the MiFi 4510L can run you $2,019 or $1,299 for capped data plans, excluding overage costs ($10 per extra GB).

Verdict

Not only does Verizon Wireless' $99 4G MiFi 4510L pack all the power of LTE, it nudged past Verizon's competing 4G LTE hotspot, the $99 Samsung SCH-LC11 hotpost, in our real-world speed tests. However, its battery life is shorter than the Sprint 3G/4G 4082 Mobile Hotspot, and, unlike Sprint's device, doesn't come with unlimited 4G WiMAX. Also, unlike the Samsung LC11, the MiFi 4510L lacks GPS, onboard storage, and the ability to charge while plugged directly into a notebook. But the MiFi 4510L is a speed demon and offers a more reliable connection. Ultimately, that's what matters most.

Read More

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s Review

Since its 2010 debut, Lenovo's ThinkPad Edge series has provided small businesses with an affordable option that combines legendary ThinkPad quality with updated looks. With the introduction of the 12.5-inch ThinkPad Edge E220s ($869 as configured), Lenovo has turned the style volume up to 11 with a sexy, soft-plastic body and chrome accents. But does this luscious laptop perform as well as it looks?

Design

The Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s is the new-look Jaguar of small business notebooks, offering a sporty reinterpretation of a classic aesthetic. While the Edge E220s's dark color, ThinkPad logo, and red trackpoint all whisper "ThinkPad," its rubberized chassis and chrome bumpers scream "jet set." We particularly like the Edge E220's color, which appears black in dark light, but is actually a very dark pool-table green when viewed in bright light. A red light sits above the letter "I" in "ThinkPad" and blinks when the system is in sleep mode, while the clean, smooth bottom makes the Edge E220s look almost as attractive when it's upside-down. The edge-to-edge "infinity glass" that covers the screen adds another high-end design element to the mix. The Edge E220's only design downside is that its surfaces pick up fingerprints far too easily.

At a mere 12.3 x 8.4 x 0.85 inches and 3.2 pounds, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s is one of the thinnest and lightest business laptops on the market, even thinner than the ThinkPad X220 (1.25 inches thick) and just a little thicker than the Toshiba Portege R835 and the Lenovo IdeaPad U260 (both 0.7 inches thick).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The island-style, spill-resistant keyboard on the ThinkPad Edge E220s has three important things going for it: powerful tactile feedback, curved keys that help you avoid errant strokes, and a comfortable, soft palm rest. Thanks to these ingredients, we achieved a strong score of 86 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, better than our typical 80 wpm score.

Like all ThinkPads, the Edge E220s has a bright red TrackPoint pointing stick in between its G and H keys. The stick provides the most accurate navigation of any built-in notebook pointing device.

For those who don't like pointing sticks, the 2.9 x 1.9-inch touchpad on the Edge E220s provides smooth, precise navigation around the desktop. Better still, multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom are smooth. Rather than offering discrete buttons, the left and right buttons are built into the pad itself. Though we've complained about the inaccuracy of so-called "clickpads" in the past, the left and right buttons on the E220's pad were quite precise and did not cause the cursor to jump when clicked.

Heat

The ThinkPad Edge E220s stayed pleasantly cool throughout our testing. After streaming video at full screen for 15 minutes, we measured the touchpad at a frigid 82 degrees, the keyboard at a cool 89 degrees, and the bottom at a reasonable 96 degrees Fahrenheit. We consider temperatures above 95 degrees uncomfortable for the top surfaces of a notebook, and 100 degrees on the underside to be too high.

Display and Audio

Whether we were streaming a 720p episode of Fringe from Fox.com or playing a 1080p QuickTime trailer of Priest, the 12.5-inch, 1366 x 768 glossy screen provided sharp, bright images, though colors seemed a bit dull. Unfortunately, the 200-nit screen and its "infinity glass" coating are so reflective that left and right viewing angles are poor. With a light source behind us and the screen at full brightness, video washed out significantly at angles even less than 45 degrees.
Lenovo uses Dolby Home Theater v4 technology to boost the ThinkPad Edge E220s's audio performance, but even with Dolby software enabled and set to the music listening profile, sound was quite tinny on the built-in speakers. Whether we were listening to a jazz standard such as Kool and the Gang's "Summer Madness," Motley Crue's "Too Young to Fall in Love," or Sade's "Smooth Operator," percussion sounds were distorted and unpleasant. Disabling the Dolby software made the music sound completely flat and dropped its volume to nearly inaudible levels.

Read More

Android Tablets Failing The Elephant In the Room

It pains me to be penning this article as Thedroidguy, but it’s no secret that Android tablets are failing at the moment.

 

When Motorola debuted the Motorola Xoom 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet, estimates were that Motorola ordered nearly 800,000 units.  An Android insider I spoke with today said that number was closer to one million. They were all but sure that the Motorola Xoom may be one of the pieces of “gear” given away at this year’s Google I/O conference next week.

We’ve all seen the reports. Analysts have low-balled Xoom sales at 120,000 units, while Motorola reported shipping (not selling) 250,000 Xoom tablets. Also, the Samsung Galaxy Tab reportedly shipped 2 million 7-inch Galaxy Tabs between the device’s Fall launch and Q1 of this year. However, the company has not revealed the Tab’s sell-through rate, because those numbers might call attention to an embarrassing fact; Android tablets are failing.

At CES 2010, there were more than 30 Android “Multimedia Devices” introduced. Just about all of them were full of fail.  The hardware quality was weak, and they all featured resistive touch screens. In some cases, you had to punch the screen to make it work. That may be an exaggeration, but anyone with a Camangi WebStation, PanDigital Android tablet, and even one of the earlier Archos tablets knows exactly what I mean.
So now we have a new wave of quality Android hardware out there. Most of these tablets feature Android 3.0, which was designed for slates. The biggest competitors are the Motorola Xoom, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 , and the T-Mobile G-Slate. All of these tablets have good quality specs and should be flying off the shelves. But are they?  No.

To me, there are three reasons why Android tablets are failing at the moment.

1. Cost

Android is a Google product; we all know this. Most of us, who are Android enthusiasts, evangelists, activists and developers are also Google enthusiasts. We use Gmail, Chrome, Gtalk, and Google Maps every day. Of course, when Google entered the mobile space, it was a no-brainer that its fans would quickly adapt to their mobile platform.  Well here’s where that gets tricky. We are all pre-programmed to expect free things from Google. It’s in the Google culture. It’s one of the reasons free apps do so well. Paid apps? Not so much.
The next cost factor is the fact that, because Android is open source, you can find it on myriad devices from the super-expensive to practically free. Also, unlike Apple’s iPhone, Android devices are eligible for carrier and partner discounts. We’ve seen some high-end Android devices introduced for free at Best Buy, Amazon, and in carrier stores.
So what does this have to do with tablets? Well I don’t know that you could get someone who spent a penny on a top-of-the-line Android smartphone to shell out $600 for a tablet.  Apple has conditioned consumers to expect the tablet experience to be very similar to that of a phone. What do you need a tablet for if you have a free phone that does the same thing?

Apple’s “Fanboy” culture is very different from Android’s “Fanboy” culture.  Apple enthusiasts often buy every product that comes out of Cupertino. I know way more people who own an iPhone, an iPad, and an iPod than I do who own an Android phone and an Android tablet.

Are these cost problems easily fixed? No. ASUS has come out with a sub-$400 Android tablet that seems to be competitive with the Xoom and Iconia, but they’ve allegedly  run out of parts. When ASUS ramps up production again, the Eee Pad Transformer may make a difference, but ASUS doesn’t have the name recognition that a Motorola or an Acer do.

2. Apps

The paucity of Honeycomb Apps is a big part of this tablet problem. Right now, the Android Market boasts nearly 70 Honeycomb apps.  Android is offering the Fragments APK so that developers can build a Honeycomb app, and then port it down to phone versions of the OS easily. Taptu just did it with their interactive, somewhat-intuitive reader app.  Hopefully more developers will take advantage of Fragments, but the problem is getting the developers to build Honeycomb apps, period.

Android’s open source roots and the ease of getting programs listed in the Android Market have given rise to whole new waves of developers. You have traditional, Silicon Valley-based developer groups with venture capital and angel funding developing for Android.  You  have medium-sized developer companies that, at least, have a sign on the door. And then you have the bedroom developers who literally get off the school bus and develop all night.
Honeycomb is hard for this last type of developer. Sure the big-time development companies get access to devices early on, but that developer getting off the bus isn’t. Every single iPhone app will run on the iPad. Some may be in that small phone-sized box. But, you can blow that up or use the app in that size. With Android and Honeycomb, app use for tablets is hit or miss. An app developed for Android 2.2 Froyo may run on Honeycomb in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It may choose to run in the center of the screen, or may not run at all. Without access to a Honeycomb tablet prior to development, it makes it hard for the smaller fish to develop tablet-friendly apps.

Sure the developers can use the emulator in the SDK, but it’s not quite the same as developing directly on the device. The same can be said for phones.  I applaud Qualcomm for pushing out a developer device for their dual core chipsets (and previous chipsets). However this device costs $1,300, and in an ecosystem where people aren’t as inclined to pay for apps, that’s a cost some just can’t absorb.

We know that Apple is fudging a little bit when it comes to app numbers, and that some of the iPad apps are really iPhone apps. But regardless of how we techies look at it, Apple boasts 75,000 apps for iPad to 70 apps for Honeycomb.  Sure, the Honeycomb tablet hardware can go toe-to-toe with the iPad, and in most cases really kick its rear, but the software–not so much.

Some think TapJoy’s in-app billing, carrier billing, and Google’s own in-app billing will make it easier for devs to make money in the Android market, but that is still far from perfect.

3. Fragmentation

You knew the F word was coming right? Tablets aren’t nearly as fragmented as the Android Phone side of things, but let’s look at the current offerings (or just about to be released offerings).

You have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch, which is running Android 2.2 Froyo. We know from Samsung’s past record for updating Android that the original Tab may die with Froyo. Froyo is a phone operating system, and aside from some small things Samsung has tweaked for the 7-inch experience, it still functions like a big phone (minus the ability to make calls in the U.S.).

Next out of the gate was the Motorola Xoom, the first device with Android Honeycomb, which featured some 50 apps at launch. My TI-81 had more “apps” than the Xoom. Android 3.0 is a CLEAR winner in terms of functionality, but it’s not on many devices and it doesn’t function at all like its phone predecessors.

The T-Mobile G-Slate,  Acer Iconia, and the ASUS Tranformer also all feature Android 3.0 Honeycomb, so perhaps we’re getting somewhere.  However throw the HTC EVO View 4G, in the mix, which is running lord-knows-what version of Android, and you’re back to fragmenting in the Android tablet space.

On the phone side, fragmentation of Android has gotten worse, not better. One of the biggest culprits in creating the problem is Samsung.  Last night, Samsung released the Infuse 4G on AT&T; great phone, great device, etc. However, any day now they are going to release the Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T, which will be dual core, and have better specs than the Infuse. They’re also bad about fragmenting the Android tablet market. The Samsung Galaxy Tab wasn’t even 6 months old when they announced the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, both of which are going to run Honeycomb.

Can you imagine what this must be like for John Smith trying to decide on an Android tablet? 4G, 3G, WiMAX, LTE, Wi-Fi-only, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, ASUS, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Acer, EVO 4G, G-Tab, Optimus Tab. These are just words to potentially describe the four devices I’ve laid out here, and doesn’t include rumored tablets by Sony, Toshiba, Dell, etc.

My advice? Next week, one of the first Android sessions at I/O is on Honeycomb. Watch it, learn it, and maybe the developer community can help stabilize the falling, I mean failing, tablets.

Read More